Infected
by redolivia
Summary: The light of the moon was momentarily obscured by a dark ominous cloud, The Shadow, waiting for this moment, sprung. Something's wrong with Jack, mood swings, erratic bursts of anger and power. The Guardians don't know what to do, the forces moving may be more sinister than they first realised and their time may be running out.
1. Chapter 1

The wind rustled through the leaves of the forest trees and swept through the green fronds of bracken as the full moon shone strongly over the scene. The shadow moved carefully through the bracken, away from the searching eye of the moon. It stopped, pooling in the shadow of a tall oak tree, its leaves sparkling with frost. The shadow coiled, ready to strike as a dark cloud rolled towards the bright moon. The cloud obscured the moons light and the shadow lunged.

Jack turned over restlessly in his sleep. The Wind moved quickly to nudge his sleeping form back onto the bough of the huge oak before he could fall the considerable distance to the bracken below. The shadow cast by Jack's body onto the trees rough bough wavered as if it had suddenly become water and then seemed to slowly seep through Jack's frozen hoodie, but the wind did not see and turned back to its careful vigilance of this boy it must protect. And the dark cloud moved from the moons gaze and it could once again shine strongly down on the sleeping form of Jack.

Jack woke up stiff, tired and _cold. _He lay there paralysed for a brief moment as this sank in. He hadn't felt this kind of cold since… since he had drowned in the frozen pond. He found suddenly that he couldn't breathe and clutched his staff close to his chest. Then the feeling passed and it was like it had never happened.

'Cold, pah!' Jack thought, 'I don't feel the cold!' The absurdity of what he had thought he had felt pushed away the deep feeling of unease that sat in his stomach like a rock.

He stood on the branch and took a deep breath of the chilly air to clear his head before performing a back flip off the branch into the air. The wind caught him, ruffling his hair in welcome and took him to the nearby stream, which gurgled through the woods several meters away from the tree.

Jack knelt by the icy water and leaned over to wash his face and he saw his reflection. He reeled back, crying out, and scrambled away from the water, gasping like he had just nearly drowned. The memory of what he had seen stuck in his vision like a leach. On his face where there should have been two blue eyes, two dark voids had greeted him. Jack couldn't think of the irises he had seen as black, they were darker and deeper than that. The Wind ruffled his hair worriedly, and Jack slowly crawled back over to the water. He looked over and… nothing. His eyes where the normal icy blue they should be, and he shook his head.

'Must have been a trick of the light.' He whispered, and as he said it, it seemed more true. Black eyes! How ridiculous. Then he remembered the colour and he realised it was like the colours in Pitch's lair. And then he remembered how tired he was and why. Last night he had been plagued with nightmares like he hadn't been since he had become a guardian. He shook his head again, it was nothing.

'I'm hungry, I think we should go to North's.'

The wind blew restlessly for a second, sensing something had been wrong and not completely happy with the lack of explanation. But seeing Jacks expression, it picked him up and carried him away.


	2. Chapter 2

The events of that morning stayed in Jack's mind during his visit to the pole and after breakfast, he left quickly so North wouldn't see that anything was wrong. The monthly Guardian meeting, a new tradition created after Jack had joined the group, was coming up in a few days so Jack didn't visit any of the Guardians and threw himself into spreading winter through Europe. The hard work pushed the darker thoughts gradually away, until he stopped thinking about the strange events all together.

The Wind however was too concerned about Jack to just let it go and tried to persuade him to tell the Guardians at the next meeting, but Jack would have none of it.

'It was nothing, I was just tired. I'm not going to burden them with stupid things like that.' The Wind would have argued further but for the deep fear she sensed from her boy. She couldn't understand what he was scared of but stopped mentioning it, not wanting to upset him.

North was in his favourite sitting room at the pole when Jack arrived on the day of the meeting. North watched him carefully, but the strange tenseness which had worried him for the past days had gone from Jack and he seemed relaxed and carefree once again. Jack swooped in through the window before skidding on the floor on a blast of ice he had created. He hopped onto the back of the sofa and crouched down,

'Hey North! Is everyone else here yet?' He said smiling as a passing Yeti eyed the ice on the floor with evident disapproval.

'Sandy is getting snack, others are not here yet.'

Sandy wandered lazily in as North stopped speaking and raised his glass of eggnog to Jack before settling down on the sofa underneath where Jack was perching. Tooth appeared a couple of minutes later and the room buzzed with her instructions to her fairies. Bunny arrived out of a hole in the floor of the room, slipping on the ice Jack had left and crashing to the floor before the guardians. Jack fell off the back of the chair in laughter and Sandy chimed quietly. North stood quickly before anything could escalate, Bunny was looking at Jack murderously, and clapped his hands.

'Since were all here lets go the meeting room.'

Jack swung back on his chair in boredom. He loved his new family dearly and loved spending time with them, but these meeting seemed to go on and on! How long could one Pooka talk about egg distribution! He pushed his chair back a little further, the wind blowing through his hair, when gravity took over and suddenly his head was on the ground and snowflakes where dancing in his vision.

The Guardians all stopped talking and stared at Jack for a stunned second, all thinking the same thing. How could Jack fall? He could fly for gods' sakes. The silence was broken by the wind who rushed in around the room full force, sweeping the various pieces of paper on the table into a whirlwind as she rushed to Jack. Jack took a shaky breath and grabbed his staff off the floor where he had dropped it when he had hit the floor. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to the still shocked Guardians.

'Sorry guys.' He said bashfully and rubbed his hair in embarrassment. His hand came away red.

'You're bleeding!' Tooth gasped and was out of her chair and by Jack's side in a split second to inspect the damage. Jack had cut himself on a loose floor board and as Tooth fussed around his head he stared to feel lightheaded and dizzy. The wind helped him to a spare chair and he collapsed into it. The Guardians crowded around him in worry.

'Are you alright mate?' Bunny asked coming closer.

'Yeah, just a bump on the head, I've had worse.' He ran his hand through his hair again, 'This is never going to come out.' He said with a sigh.

Bunny looked at him incredulously, 'Yer bleedin' from yer head and all ye care about is yer hair?'

'What,' Jack said, mock defensively, trying to lighten the mood, 'White is a very difficult colour to keep clean!'

North waved a Yeti over and the Yeti scooped Jack up, despite Jack's objections and spluttered insults and carried him to the hospital ward where he was placed carefully, scowling, onto the clean white sheet of a hospital bed.

'North, this is hardly necessary!'

'You will need stitches and to stay in bed for a while.' North said sternly.

'How long is a while?'

'I would say four days, at least!'

'Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me!'

But Jack felt like he was starting to sound like a whining child and the throbbing in his head was starting to get quite uncomfortable so he didn't resist as North cleaned his wound and stitched his head as the other Guardians hovered behind him, looking as if they wanted to help but not knowing what to do. Jack managed to keep up a pretty impressive scowl for the whole process.

'I think you have concussion.' North pronounced, 'we'll all give you some peace now but if you start to feel dizzier or your vision starts to go black, just ring this bell, and someone will come.'

Jack, who didn't think he could feel any dizzier than he felt now, nodded sulkily and the guardians filed out of the room, North stuck his head back in before closing the door,

'Oh and Jack?' He said putting on his most commanding and serious voice, 'I expect for you to still be here when I come back'

He raised his eyebrows threateningly and closed the door behind him.

Once out of earshot, the Guardians stood silently for a second before Bunny spoke,

'Have any of you ever seen Jack fall over?' He asked quietly.

They all shook their heads silently, their eyes full of worry.

Once the Guardians had left the room, the Wind blew around Jack in apology for not catching him.

Jack, now quite sure he would throw up, comforted her,

'It wasn't your fault, I just fell.'

But the wind could not be consoled. Jack never fell! She never failed to catch him! How could she trust herself with him now, he had quite seriously hurt himself from falling from a chair, what is she dropped him from a real height!

'But,' Jack started confusion colouring his tone, 'Why did you not catch me?'

He wasn't accusing her of anything; he was just confused at how it had happened. But the wind was riled up into even more of a state.

'I don't know.' Was her only answer.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack's nightmares were black and desolate. They didn't make sense, as dreams often don't, but the swirling grey images which spun like a whirl wind while he slept filled him with a deep feeling of fear and isolation. The swirling images flashed away and Jack was left in a cold stone chamber where the shadows seemed to ooze from the corners like syrup but then turn misty and insubstantial as they curled around his feet. The mist curled up his body until it surrounded him and the chamber was misted over in grey. One lone tendril reached towards his heart and pierced him with a freezing blast. Jack doubled over in pain as the cold spread, down his back, through his arms and legs and up towards his head until he was clutching it in his hands, screaming. But his hands where cold and made it worse and he could find no release. In this strange land of grey nightmares rational thoughts started to leak through. Jack feared the Guardians would here him screaming in his sleep and know something was wrong with him. But he also wanted them to wake him, to hear his cries and comfort him, to get him out of this terrible vision. But no-one came and Jack was trapped in his agony in the stone chamber, with his hands hanging limply at his sides.

North opened Jack's door quietly and stepped through, just as Jack stretched and opened his eyes.

'Ah Jack, you have slept for a long time, we would have woken you but you looked so peaceful.'

A look of confusion and pain crossed Jack's face but disappeared too quickly for North to process it.

'Oh, uh, sorry. I hope I'm not a bother.'

North looked slightly offended, 'You are family Jack, you are never bother!'

North moved over to inspect Jack's bandage before opening a draw and pulling out some clean gauze. He set to work redoing Jacks bandages, chatting about some of his latest toys before briefly leaving and returning with a glass of water and some pancakes.

'You have drink, but if you don't want to eat, is fine.'

He placed them on the bedside table before leaving Jack in peace.

Jack contemplated his dream as he reached for the water. He couldn't remember the details, just the feeling of cold. He bit his lip and tried to slow his panicked breathing. And none of the other Guardians had heard him cry out. He must have been silent then, which was odd, for Jack. His fingers touched the glass and his brooding was interrupted as a bolt of ice shot from his long pale fingers into the water and froze it solid. Jack sat dumbstruck, with his mouth hanging slightly open. One of his hands was holding his staff as it always did when he slept, but he hadn't meant to do that. He reached to the back of his mind and felt his power. His control had always been good, sometimes when he was very upset he would cause storms and his control would slip slightly, like a rubber band being slackened, but he could still rein it in if he wanted to. He felt now and it felt as it did at those times,

'Must have just been the dream that upset me,' He thought.

He reached to rein his power back in but nothing happened. Jacks breathing sped up and a knot formed in his stomach. In his panic, hoar frost started to spread out from his hands onto the sheets and down onto the floor. Jack tried to regulate his breathing, to control the power which was coming from him but there was no response. The temperature dropped and Jack scrambled to his feet, desperate to get out of the room and get somewhere far away. A wave of nausea knocked him back down but he scrambled to his feet again, head pounding.

He tried the windows, but they were locked fast, probably North's cunning plan to not let him leave before he was better. Jack massaged his temples with his fingers.

'Calm,' he whispered to himself, 'breathe', he started to pace slowly around the room 'don't panic.'

Ice formed under his feet as he walked, but he kept going, pushing down the rising panic. He picked up the glass off the table as he came round and clutched it tightly, trying to get his loose excess power to go into it. But the ice kept coming and temperature became so low that if one of the guardians had been in the room they would have probably frozen to death.

Jacks pace quickened and all of his remaining calm broke as his hold on his power slipped further from his grasp. He curled into the corner of the room, hyperventilating and hugged his staff close to his body.

_His staff_

'Of course.' Jack thought, cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner. He dropped his staff a few feet away from him on the floor and scrambled away from it, panting. He looked across at the weather beaten piece of wood lying in the corner. He felt incomplete without it, he could no longer hear the wind, who he had not realised, had been rushing around the room in worry, until he couldn't hear her anymore. All he heard now was what everyone else heard, the rushing of air. He curled in on himself, feeling isolated and incomplete.

'What just happened?' He whispered miserably to the empty room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hola ****Señors y señoritas!**

**New chapter! Btw this is set around 2 years after the movie and I know there is a lot of controversy but I am making Jack fifteen years old! But you would have found that out anyway as you read this chapter… oh well! Enjoy!**

North entered Jack's room to a strange sight. Jack was aggressively attacking the floor with a mop. His staff was propped in the corner; North couldn't remember a time that Jack had been willingly away from his staff…ever. The sheets where not on the bed and there appeared to be shattered glass on the floor.

'Uh… Jack?'

North watched with his eyebrows raised in curiosity as Jack jumped four foot in the air in surprise.

'O-o-oh oh, hi North!' Jacks voice came out three octaves higher than normal.

'What are you doing?'

'I-I-I ummmm felt like I was going to be sick, but the door was locked and I couldn't get to the bathroom… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make a mess. There was a mop and I tidied it up, sorry North.' Jack looked down and bit his lip, the lie tasting sour in his mouth. But North saw this action as embarrassment and laughed it off.

'Is not problem Jack, but why is there broken glass?'

'I… umm was holding it when… and I dropped it.'

'Oh I see.'

Jack looked up and smiled thankfully.

'Thanks North.' Jack smiled again and tried to walk around the huge Russian.

'Where are you going?'

'Well, I feel much better now thanks, and I really need to get going, stuff to be done, snow days to be had. Fun doesn't make itself you know.'

North raised his eyebrows and shifted to fill the doorway.

'You just threw up, you look as pale as death,' Jack raised his own eyebrows at that, 'at least _paler_ than usual, you need to stay in bed, Jack.'

Jack took a deep breath, pushing down his irritation.

'North, I'm fine; I really, _really_, need to go.'

'No Jack.'

'Yes.'

'No!'

'Yes!'

'NO Jack, I won't say it again!'

'Then don't! Just get out of my way!'

'I only want what's best for you!'

'I think I know what's best for me!' _and you,_ Jack added silently.

'Well you obviously don't if you think you should be out of bed after cutting your head open, getting concussion and throwing up!'

'Don't tell me what to do!' Jack shouted, his anger and panic rising.

'I'm telling you what to do because you won't see reason!'

With that, North turned and slammed the door shut, locking Jack back in the room.

In the quiet that followed, North could hear the angry breaths of Jack through the wood. That went silent and was followed by the padding of his bare feet and a sudden _SMASH_ of glass. Before North could unlock and open the door, Jack was gone, staff and all.

Bunny came running to where North stood, staring into the empty room.

'What's wrong mate? I heard shouting, is Jack alright?'

'He- he wanted to leave but I wouldn't let him, we argued and he smashed glass… and left. He was acting very strange Bunny.'

Bunny looked over North shoulder and surveyed the scene. Glass covered the whole floor and where there had once been large, ornate, stained glass windows, there were now gaping holes, letting in the cold wind and snow of the North.

'Hmmm,' Bunny pondered for a moment, 'How old is Jack?'

'Three hundred and seventeen.' North said without pause.

'No I mean when he… died, sort of.'

'Oh um… fifteen, I think.'

'It could be a teenage thing then.'

'But Jack has been teenager for more than three hundred years!'

'Yeah but he spent most of that time alone, maybe it's only starting now. I'm sure it's just a phase.' Bunny said in that patronising tone that makes all teenagers' blood boil.

North sighed, 'I don't know what to do with _teenager_,' He said the word like it was foreign on his tongue,

'I'm sure we'll work through it,' Bunny said, putting a hand on North's shoulder. What's the worse that can happen?'

Jack flew as far away as he could, as quickly as he could. He ended up in some snow covered mountains somewhere and finally allowed himself to breathe. He stood at the summit and around him swirled a huge snowstorm. He threw all of his energy into it and it grew larger and more violent until eventually, Jack's power dwindled and he sunk to the ground in exhaustion.

His head throbbed, his skin crawled, his stomach churned and he felt weaker than he ever had before. But as he felt around for what small amount was left of his power, he felt his control tighten over it once again.

'Nothing was wrong,' he thought determinedly, 'It must just have been my head, there's nothing wrong with me' and with that thought, he fell asleep where he had collapsed in the snow, his staff cradled against him.

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